The telecom customer is no longer just human

If you work in telecom, you already feel it. Customer experience has quietly become the real battleground, and not in the way it was five years ago. Price wars still exist. Network quality still matters. But according to Omdia’s new report, The Future of Customer Experience in Telecoms, those factors alone are no longer enough.

What is changing everything is generative AI and the rise of agentic AI. Not chatbots. Not smarter IVRs. Actual AI agents acting on behalf of customers, making decisions, switching plans, resolving issues, and optimizing connectivity without a human ever touching a screen.

For telecom operators, this is not a future scenario. It is already happening.

GenAI and agentic AI introduce a new customer type

Omdia’s analysis points to a fundamental shift. Telecom operators are no longer designing experiences only for people. They are now designing for digital proxies acting in the interest of people. These AI agents will compare tariffs, negotiate upgrades, detect network issues, and even trigger churn if expectations are not met.

That changes the rules completely.

An AI agent does not care about marketing slogans. It does not respond to generic loyalty programs. It evaluates consistency, transparency, speed, trust, and contextual relevance. If your systems are slow, fragmented, or opaque, the agent will move the customer elsewhere without hesitation.

This is why Omdia argues that customer experience strategies must evolve to treat AI agents as customers in their own right.

From reactive networks to context-proactive experiences

Telecom has traditionally been reactive. A customer complains, a ticket is opened, and a fix is attempted. GenAI flips that model.

Omdia highlights the need for context-proactive networks, where operators anticipate issues before customers notice them. This means AI-driven monitoring that understands not just network metrics, but customer intent, usage patterns, location, and service dependencies.

If a customer is about to enter roaming, the network should already know. If an enterprise customer relies on low latency for a specific application, the system should adapt in real time. AI agents will expect this level of intelligence as standard.

This is where many operators still lag behind hyperscalers and cloud-native players, who already operate on predictive and automated models.

Why robotic responses are becoming a liability

For years, telecom operators invested heavily in automation to reduce costs. The result was efficiency, but often at the expense of empathy and clarity. Omdia is blunt here. Robotic responses no longer work, especially in a world of AI-driven interactions.

Customers want meaningful engagement, not scripts. AI agents want structured, accurate, machine-readable responses that lead to fast resolution.

This creates an interesting paradox. Telecom operators must become more human for people and more precise for machines at the same time.

Operators like Telstra, SK Telecom, and Deutsche Telekom are already experimenting with GenAI-powered service layers that blend conversational interfaces with deep backend intelligence. The goal is not just to answer questions, but to solve problems in one interaction, regardless of whether the request comes from a person or an AI agent.

Hyper-personalization is no longer optional

Personalization in telecom used to mean segmented offers. GenAI pushes this much further.

According to Omdia, hyper-personalization means tailoring services, pricing, support, and even network behavior at the individual level. AI agents accelerate this expectation because they can constantly optimize for the best outcome on behalf of the user.

If your competitor can dynamically adjust a plan based on real usage while you offer static bundles, the decision is already made.

This also impacts adjacent markets. Telecom operators expanding into cloud, security, energy, or IoT cannot afford inconsistent experiences. A poor connectivity experience undermines trust across the entire portfolio.

Security is becoming digital stewardship

One of the most important points in Omdia’s framework is the shift from security to trusted digital stewardship.

AI agents will handle sensitive data, permissions, and decisions. Customers will judge operators not only on uptime, but on how responsibly they manage identity, consent, and data flows between humans and machines.

This is where telecom operators actually have an advantage. Compared to many tech platforms, telcos already operate under strict regulatory frameworks and have decades of experience managing critical infrastructure.

The challenge is turning compliance into trust, and trust into a competitive differentiator.

From satisfaction to advocacy in an AI-driven world

Omdia’s final step is often overlooked. Transforming satisfied customers into vocal advocates.

In a world of AI agents, advocacy does not only happen on social media. It happens through recommendation engines, automated procurement systems, and enterprise decision tools. If your service consistently performs, AI agents will favor it, recommend it, and stick with it.

That kind of advocacy scales faster than any marketing campaign.

Omdia’s five-step customer experience framework

Shift from reactive to context-proactive networks
Move from robotic responses to meaningful engagement
Deliver hyper-personalized services
Advance from security to trusted digital stewardship
Transform satisfied customers into vocal advocates

Why this matters now

This shift is happening alongside broader trends. Hyperscalers are moving closer to connectivity. eSIM platforms are redefining distribution. AI-native MVNOs are emerging with leaner models and smarter CX from day one.

If traditional operators fail to modernize customer experience at the core, their diversification strategies will struggle. Cloud, security, and energy services depend on trust built through connectivity.

Omdia’s report aligns with similar findings from McKinsey, Accenture, and GSMA Intelligence, all pointing to CX as the decisive factor in telecom’s next phase.

Conclusion

The most important takeaway from Omdia’s analysis is not that AI is coming. It is that customer experience is no longer owned by one department, one channel, or even one species.

Telecom operators are entering an era where humans and AI agents coexist as customers. The winners will be those who design systems that are intelligent, transparent, proactive, and trustworthy by default.

Compared to digital-native players and AI-first challengers, traditional operators still have scale, infrastructure, and regulatory credibility on their side. But those advantages only matter if they are translated into seamless experiences.

In the GenAI era, networks connect devices. Experiences connect loyalty. And increasingly, AI agents will decide who earns both.